a lost Schindler found: the Breacher apartments!

 

Los Angeles bows at the altar of the almighty highway. The gods of ever-expanding asphalt require the sacrifice of all in their path, including the parks, the gardens, and the homes. Several Schindlers fell victim to the hopeless hope of shorter commutes across the ever-expanding suburban nothingness. Such was the fate of Schindler's Breacher Apartments from 1925.

Or was it?

I received an email earlier this week from Dan Caroselli, a fellow Schindler-head, that, miracle-of miracles, reported that he had located the Breacher Apartments! 

"I couldn't believe my eyes at first," Caroselli said. He just happened to be gawking at structures along South Sherbourne Drive on Google Streetview when he noticed the building's distinctive “Schindlerian” characteristics. "At first glance I assumed it must have been a later construction inspired by Schindler," Caroselli said. "But as I looked at more of it there was no doubt in my mind this had to be done by him!"

Indeed, the building, as seen from Google Streetview, looks exactly like the one Schindler designed, :

 It appears remarkably original outside of the doors and windows: 

 

To remove any doubt that this is a Schindler, Caroselli found the relocation permit for moving the building from its original location at 5806 Carlton Way in Hollywood to 2045 South Sherbourne Drive:

"It honestly felt like finding a gold nugget," Caroselli said. Indeed! Besides reaching out to us, Caroselli has notified the MAK Center and US Modernist. "I just wanted to pass along this find and hope that it may help the building be preserved and appreciated," he said.

 

 

water from a home

When I saw the email, I thought “Wha?!?!?!” It was from the MAK Center for Architecture, the good folks that oversee the Schindler House in LA along with two other properties, the Mackey Apartments and the Fitzpatrick-Leland- House. It was a call for proposals to stay at the Fitzpatrick-Leland- House for a month and then give a presentation at the Schindler House at the end of the month. Sounds dreamy! But given that I am a water scientist by professional training, and not an architect, I though “Well, this doesn’t really apply to me.”

I read on.

They wanted proposals about helping to solve the world’s water problems!?!??!?!?

“Holy crap!!!” I holycrapped. “It’s like this was written for ME!!!!”

And so I poured my heart and soul into the proposal because how many Schindler geeks are there that are also water geeks?

Given my knowledge of Schindler and his work, I brought in the log cabin he designed in ____ which cleverly incorporated rainwater harvesting while maintaining hydraulic head for supply. I also realized, pondering his design for the Schindler House, that he included stormwater harvesting in that design through sunken gardens, gardens that would have increased recharge to the aquifers below (although I doubt he worried about increasing recharge). I also included images of a couple other projects (unrealized) where water played a role in his design, the Adobe House in New Mexico (1915) and the Translucent House for Aline Barnsdall (1927). Unlike Neutra, Schindler didn’t use water features in his homes for the non-wealthy.

My pitch was to prepare an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand document on how to design water-resilient homes and other structures using on-site sources, how to calculate resilience for these supplies, and how to think about these designs in the context of a city’s water supply. The award for only $5,000 to cover travel and living expenses.

I was absolutely heartbroken to not have been selected.

When you are in the business of writing proposals, you are in the business of disappointment. A rule of thumb for academics (unless you really have it dialed in) is to only expect 1 out of 10 to be funded. So I knew that was not only a possible outcome, but also a likely outcome. Regardless, it felt like the universe had reached out to me to only, at the last second, reel it all back in, and laugh.

Sigh…

On the other hand, as the person who always see the glass as a quarter full, this allows me to use the time I blocked out on my calendar to finish the book I am working on climate change and water. I’ll save “Water from a Home” for a later date…

a visit to Schindler's Clubhouse for Actors

While working for Myer & Mayer in Vienna, right out of school, Schindler designed a "Clubhouse for Actors" at 6 Dorotheergasse. This is Schindler's first built work. Sarnitz (1993) states that "...it seems evident that this design reflects the intentions of his employer more than his own intentions, and therefore this should not be considered with the other Schindler projects." Regardless, the building was published in Der Architekt (1912), albeit under the name of the architect of record, Hans Mayr.

From the narrow street, the building appears nearly the same as in the architectural drawing and doesn't exude anything special, either today or for its time. There are touches of Modernism on the first floor with with large bay windows and the simple geometries and lack or ornamentation inside. The entrance is slightly different  and the windows are updated although they retain the original rhythm of the design. A cafe holds court in the northeastern corner of the building. A theater, now billiard bar and a club, still exists on the first floor.

The cafe, Cafe Hawelka (Künstlerkaffeehaus Hawelka) was opened in 1939 by Leopold Hawelka. The cafe was a haunt for many local writers in the 1950s and 1960s. Arthur Miller and Andy Warhol stopped in. The cafe serves a mean wiener melange. The interior of the original cafe was designed by a student of Adolf Loos, and much of this original design remains.

The painter Adolf Frankl also lived in the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the rotary house

 

Because The Bride and I are jointly enamored with the Silverlake Neighborhood in Los Angeles, Zillow sends me alerts when houses come up for sale. It's also a way to "tour" the cool moderns when they come up for sale.

This one popped up this last week, and my first thought was: is this a lost Schindler? Not a Schindler, it turns out, but definitely a house influenced by Schindler down to its axiometric drawing. The architect is Robert Nicolais who proudly admits the Schindler influence and is the official woodworker for recreations of Schindler's furniture, including the furniture you see at the Schindler House. I also learned from Googling Mr. Nicolais that he sold a set to Donald Judd for Judd's house in Marfa, which means I saw Schindler's furniture before I knew of Schindler (and had assumed Judd had designed it).

Anywho, this is a dang cool place, built in 1990. It is enormous since Nicolais used the house for his design studio and shop. 

 

 

 

for sale: the tucker house

 

For only the second time in its history, Schindler's Tucker House is on the market for a cool 3.2 mil. Even better, the listing gives us a peek of the interior and backside of this home. Listed by Crosby Doe Associates, who specialize in selling rather awesome places. My guess is all that steel down below for the foundation is post-construction.